Sunday, October 14, 2007

Facts about SCHIP and what we need to do this week

I am going to list the facts about SCHIP, facts that the left doesn't want you to see, they would rather the focus be on anything but these facts.

SCHIP needs to address what was wrong with the bill to begin with, which is why underneath this post I will be listing all the phone numbers you need to be calling tomorrow (Monday) and every day until the 18th, when the vote to override the President's veto is held.

We need to call those numbers relentlessly, jam the lines, and let our representatives know that they need to uphold the President's veto until the bill is written in a way that fixes the problems in the original bill and not expand those problems.

Facts about SCHIP: Remember what SCHIP stands for as you read these facts. State Children's Heath Insurance Program.

670,000 adults are covered by Schip. Eleven states cover some parents, and six states cover either pregnant adults or some adults with no children.

FACT TWO:

As this Kaiser 2006 survey of all the states details, in all but three states a family’s assets are not considered at all in determining eligibility for SCHIP. (As I pointed out here Maryland, home of the Frost’s, and California, my home, do not consider assets in qualification for SCHIP.) (Source- Democracy Project)

FACT THREE:

In 2006, 118,501 children and 101,919 adults in Michigan received health care from the S-CHIP program. Incredibly, this means that 46 percent of Michigan’s funding allotment intended to give poor children health insurance actually went to cover adults. (Source-Tim Walberg-congressman from Michigan’s Seventh District.)

FACT FOUR:

Higher income levels instead of low income families- New Jersey:

The Senate bill states: "(B) - Exception - Subparagraph (A) [the limitation of the matching rate to the Medicaid rate for children whose effective income exceeds 300 percent of the Federal poverty level] shall not apply to any State that, on the date of enactment of the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007, has an approved State Plan Amendment or waiver to provide, or has enacted a State law to submit a State plan amendment to provide, expenditures described in such subparagraph under the State child health plan." (Source- The SCHIP Bill)

The Senate SCHIP bill also grandfathers in New Jersey's program at 350 percent of the Federal poverty level, which includes children in families with incomes of $72,000 a year.

FACT FIVE: (Pointed out by Right Truth after going through the wording of the bill)

This bill would provide strong incentive for individuals and employers to dump private coverage and shift these costs to the taxpayers -- at an estimated cost of $74,000 per person annually. Here in Tennessee we watched a similar stampede to state-run coverage cripple the TennCare system. Another troubling component of the bill is the removal of the proof-of-citizenship requirements for enrollment. This provision, found in Section 211 (H.R. 976), is commonly referenced as the concerted effort to allow taxpayer subsidized healthcare to illegal immigrants.

However, the Republicans haven’t given up. The GOP contingent on the House Energy And Commerce Committee have published some interesting data about the “children” — they’re awfully mature in many cases. Several states will spend more than 44% of their S-CHIP grants on adults in 2008, and that excludes pregnant women. In Michigan, that total goes to 71%. In most cases, the money gets spent on the parents more than the kids

The politicians and the left side of the blogosphere would love to keep focus of this issue on the Frost family, which proved FACT TWO, actually, the Democrats use of that family brought the problem of no "asset tests" to our attention, but the reason they would rather keep the focus on the family is so they can avoid the facts presented above.

Tomorrow, we must all call the numbers I am going to list here again, and continue to call them and tell our representatives to UPHOLD THE PRESIDENT'S VETO, until these issues are addressed and fixed within the bill so that SCHIP can do what it is intended to do and that is to cover low income children, not adults and not people that can afford private health insurance but choose not to.

The override vote is scheduled for October 18, so make sure your representatives know that we expect them to uphold the president's veto until the the language in this bill fixes it instead of expands on the problems listed above: